Fire Scars
by Morgan Stares K'Treva
Summary: It's not that bad right? I mean I've only been claimed as property of the werewolves on the first day of school because of some supposed marking I have, and turned out to be a natural in . . . stuff that I'm pretty sure I didn't sign up for.
1. Chapter 1

I try to be as still as possible as Madame Pomphrey hustles the newcomer, an expert on burns who worked in a dragon reserve over. The man examines the burns, tutting slightly as he takes of the bandages. I flinch slightly as the bandages tear at the raw flesh, before sighing as something cool starts to cover them, slowly taking away the heat of the burn. As if from a distance, I can hear him saying that the salve would need to be reapplied twice a day, and while it wouldn't heal the burns, it would protect them from getting infected. He said something about how some of the burns were third degree, and how I was lucky that the buns on my face were mostly second degree.

Then blessed darkness came, letting me sleep for the first time in a week, when even dreamless sleep had failed to keep the dreams away.

* * *

><p>I come to to the feeling of pacing and a voice saying, " . . . he shoulds have listened to Dobby, yes he shoulds."<p>

I open my right eye, carefully keeping my left eye closed to keep from moving burned skin and I groan slightly as I see the blurry room beyond me. The muttering pauses before something scrambles frantically and the surviving half of my glasses are carefully slid onto my face, bringing a small elf into focus. "Is Mr. Harry Potter sir alright?"

"You're that elf . . . Dobby right?" I ask, blinking slowly. "Could I take you up on your offer now?"

There's a slight sob, and I watch as the elf frantically while his face on his pillow case before looking up with shining eyes.

"That was all Dobby has ever wanted," the elf said. "Now, does Mr. Harry Potter sir know where he wants to go?"

"Some where I can heal - and research schools," I say slowly, and Dobby nods. "And I need the recipe for the salve the dragon trainer's healer put on me."

"Yes Harry Potter sir," the elf said, looking thoughtful. "Dobby shall take you to the Americas then."

"You would know more than me," I say, letting my head fall back.

"Thank yous Mr. Harry Potter sir," the elf says, carefully taking the half of my glasses off.

* * *

><p>My dream that night is an odd one, with glimpses of hair in a shade of ruby, that even though it couldn't be natural, just seemed to be so, and flashes of amber skin as fingers gently traced the slight ridges and indents left my the burns with a coolness that seemed to gently cool the burning sensation. Almost at the edge of my hearing, a soothing melody was hummed by soft tenor.<p>

* * *

><p>When I wake up, it's to the sound of the ocean, and I slowly open my eyes, unsure what to expect, and still wary of opening my left eye. Of course all I can see is a blurred mess, but before I can do anything, there's a pop and my half glasses are slid onto breach revealing two house elves, Dobby another other about the same size.<p>

"Mr. Harry Potter sir," the two chorus, Dobby bowing and the other curtsying. "This is Ada sir, and she be looking for a master."

The other elf stepped forwards shyly and curtseyed again. I look between the two of them again before I speak. " Wait, you want me to be her master?"

The two of them nod and I look at them a little fearfully. "I don't want to be a master."

"Not master then," Dobby said firmly. "Friend."

"Friend," Ada said, holding out her hand, and I hesitantly shake it.

"Friend."

* * *

><p>Ada had stayed and did all of the housework, as well as spreading my burn ointment, and some how getting me information, since Dobby could only come occasionally due to his duties as one of the Malfoy's elves. As my skin started to heal, I started exercising that side of my body, careful not to tear the new skin, and falling into deep sleeps where I continued to have dreams of the ruby red hair and the amber skin, with fingers cooling the skin and numbing the pain, as the quiet song was hummed.<p>

As it turns out, Ada had been looking for a new master because her area of experience was healing, rather than one of the normal house elf professions of cooking, cleaning, accounting, gardening, be a personal servant, or head of the house elves. Her old master had kept her around for his children's childhood, but after he had sent his children off to school, he gently told her that he didn't need her anymore because the children were gone most of the year, and even then, he thought they were old enough to go to St. Mungo's now.

Then he'd gently handed her the small, nice dress that his children had made, and told her to go find herself a good master or mistress or friend who would keep her as long they lived. Ada, who had been crying, nodded, and after washing herself and putting the nice dress on, she had run to find Dobby, who had a reputation amongst the elves for finding good masters, mistresses, and friends. She'd waited patiently for Dobby until he had brought her to me.

When I asked her what she thought of me she took on a thoughtful look.

"Yous be a good friend. Ada feels good strong caluses, but like elves, so when yous can, yous will help Ada, or so Ada thinks," she had proclaimed before looking down shyly. I laughed and assured her that that was exactly what would happen.

And so, under Ada's loving care, the burns had heal much quicker than Madame Pomphrey had predicted. Ada tells me that that this is because "Madame specializes in magic, like most magic healers. Is why Magics do get scars, dey go to healers, not doctors." She'd sniffed. "Ada be healer and doctor, so Ada cures best."

Over the month I've been here, I researched schools around the world, looking for one that suited me, and while I found many that I like better that Hogwarts (Most of the schools out of Europe, except for the Greek and Italy schools, contacted magicals at five and had a day school system where they learned both muggle and Magical subjects, before being sent off to boarding school at eleven, where they continued that education), but most of them just didn't fit me. The only one I found that did was more magic based than the others, and was more of a system of three schools, that were collectively called Chernis Schools.

Ada had looked at the pamphlet for a short moment before nodding. "Is good. Is near."

* * *

><p>So after that I'd started looking up ways to disguise myself permanently. Most of the books I looked at were useless in that aspect because many governments had forbidden it because of how criminals would use it, but there was one really old book that told me something particular.<p>

Transfiguration and curses are permanent, creating a permenant change in the rune matrix they are cast upon, charms and jinxes only last as long as their rune matrix has power, and potions, while they can be permanent, are usually made just to last a certain length of time.

That was the information summed up by the introduction, and then the rest was kind of like a computer in the way it was arranged. If you were just casually reading it, you could just read through, and it was arranged into Transfiguration, Charms, Permanent Potions, and Timed potions. Within each section, it was arranged by hair, hair length, eyes, skin color, scars, face shape, body shape, and gender.

If you were looking to get a specific result, you could tap the front page of the information section with your result in mind, and the next page would show the potions way and the charms or transfiguration way. You could also look at a list of possible changes in each section. When Ada had found me looking at the scars section she had sat next to me and read through the section on third degree scars with me. When we were done, she had hmmed and assessed me with sharp eyes.

"Harry Friend want to do?" she had asked, eyes sharp, and I hesitate.

"Would you be able to keep the scaring from restricting my movements or vision if I don't?" I ask finally, and Ada nods.

"Then no, I don't want to do it," I say firmly.

"Sure?"

"Yeah," I say. "Now why don't you help me, I'm trying decide what I'll look like after this."

Ada sat next to me, her eyes scanning the lists of possible changes (I'd asked for all of them.) before she quickly tapped a couple of them and the page dissolved, melting so that hair color was on top with tabs sticking out labeled with each of the things Ada had tapped. She'd scanned the list and nodded before turning back to me. "Harry Friend try temporary first, and see how you like. Show Ada when down, yes?"

"Can I stand?" I ask, and watch as she stares at me for a moment before speaking.

"Only to get Ada. No helping."

She then turned and walked away, leaving me to the book. I look the book over, and take the shortest version of the charms (lasting six hours) and go over them once in my head, using the trick that Ada had taught me when I'd had trouble with a spell and thinking about what was going to happen. Not necessarily _why_, because this is _magic_, but what.

The hair spell comes first, building extensions of magic on the end of mt hair and stopping when they get to my waist, the rest of the magic temporarily making my natural hair as straight as the charmed hair was, and set the dispelling words to "Fawkes-of-fire". Next I charmed my hair color to a extremely light, almost white blonde hair, and set the dispelling words to "Boy-who-would-not-bloody-die", and my skin to a dark tan color that I remember from pictures of Asian Indians in some history book, and set the dispelling words to "Ada-the-awesome-elf". My eyes were changed to a more Asian shape, and turned a dark amber, with the dispelling words "Dobby-elf-rescuer".

When I was done, I carefully get off the bed and stand, using the carved staff that Ada had gotten me to balance as I carefully walk to the door, catching a glimpse of myself in the mirror on it's back before I open it. Ada finds me a couple steps from my room, and when I stop and let her look over me, she nods approvingly before helping me hobble back to my room and pulling a chair out for me to sit on so that I can looking my mirror.

I look into the mirror and into the eyes of a stranger, who has burn scars, and though I don't really recognize myself, it feels kind of good. No offense to Ron, and Hermione, but most of what I associated with my old looks were bad memories, first because of the Dursleys, then because of my fame, and the backlash of being a person in the open that had come just hours before I was burnt. The absolute contrast between short, dark hair, pale skin, and dark green eyes and the pale hair, dark skin and white scar, and soft, but sharp amber eyes made it hard to imagine that the person in the mirror was the same as the one beneath the charms.

Ada had grinned at me as she saw my small smile.

"Now yous just needs a new name, and better sight," she told me softly as she brushed a strand of my currently white hair from my face. I smile at her in the mirror.

"Well, you're the one with the power of books," I tell her with a smile. "Get me what ever you think is best, and I'll try it. Getting this permanent can wait until the charms wear off."

She simply nodded and disappeared with a pop, appearing a few moments later with a big pile of books. She set them down before snapping, making the books sort them selves into two piles, one much larger that the other. "Here yous be. Have fun!"

* * *

><p><em>So, hello! Welcome to my story, hope you like it!<em>


	2. Chapter 2

Once Ada had helped me find a potion to fix my eyes and after I'd Changed myself permanently into the boy in the mirror and gotten a new wand (Ebony, 12 inches, Theseral mane core), Ada sat me down and started giving me lessons on how to act like an aristocrat in the magic and non-magic world, for Europe, Africa, South America, and Japan.

Apparently, in Europe, it's required for the aristocrats to learn Oculomeny, the art of guarding your mind if you want to be told anything important, and pretty much everywhere else it's almost required to lean your animagus forms. Other than that, the manners between the magic and non-magic are basically the same, and all of them require being polite and respectful.

She had helped me find my first animus us form, which had turned out to be some animal I'd never heard of before; a kelpie.

When I asked her why she knew this and why she wanted me to learn it, she'd sniffed and said that she was the elf that had been assigned to a noble's children, and thus had to watch their lessons. "You need to be unidentifiable, yes?"

When she was done, five months had passed, and I'm pretty sure none of my friends would recognise me, because part of Ada's training had been turning my accent into something that made every word I spoke sound kind of like I was singing. My writing with quill, brushes, pens, and pencils was now looking a lot like calligraphy. She had also trained me to respond to a name the two of us had picked out; No'ah Reis.

All during this time I had been receiving letters from Hermione and Ron, then just Ron, who had told me that Hermione had been petrified. Ada had stopped me from rushing to Hogwarts by telling me that she would brew the Mandrake potion and deliver it herself, but I couldn't go because then I would have to stay for another year.

The next letter after that was from Hermione and Ron again, and she told me that she had figured out that the creature petrifying things had to be a basilisk, and that it was getting around in the pipes, but no one but Ron had believed her.

Now, I look up from the rune and warding homework to find an owl pecking at the window, and I hurriedly let it in. It drops the letter on the desk and leaves with a ruffling of feathers. I open the letter, reading it with excitement, my face paling as I turn and run to the door.

"Ada! I have to go!"

* * *

><p><em>Harry, Hinny and Hermione have been kidnapped by the heir of Slytherin! He said he was going to kill them. Hermione left me a trail leading to Myrtal's bathroom.<em>

* * *

><p>"Got your wand?"<p>

"Yes."

"Potions?"

"Yes."

"Sword?"

"Yes."

"Gun?"

"Yes."

"Broom?"

"Yes."

"Then take this."

"Ada, what- wait, is this true?"

"Yes, I just changed your parents and grand-parents. It's still incomplete though."

"So-"

"Yes."

* * *

><p><em>'Open'<em>, I hiss at the sink that Myrtal had indicated, and it slides open, revealing a giant sink hole. I turn, and let the manners that Ada had ground into me come to the surface. "Thank you Myrtal!"

"You're welcome, No'ah!" Myrtal said with a giggle, drifting out of the window to smile at me. "If you die down there, you can always come and share my bathroom!"

Outwardly I just smile, but inside I'm grimacing as I send about twenty-five different cleaning charms down the slime infested tunnel, doing each charm four times before I bring out the broom Ada had gotten me and start flying down the tunnels, a lumps lit on the end of my new wand as I stay as far away from the wall as I can while still flying down the pipe. At the bottom, I see the literal sea of animal skeletons, and I take a moment to lovingly pat my broom before I fly on, seeing the massive snake skins, and keeping a keen eye out for movement.

Most of the movement comes from me moving with my light, and I frown, noting in my mind to ask Ada for a magic light that I can project.

After like fifteen minutes of flying over the snake skins and skeletons, I pause as I see a fleck of red in front of me, and hear banging emanating from around the same place. I pause for a moment before I lean forward on my broom an duly as fast as I can, pulling up in time to not crash into the wall.

"Ronald?" I ask the redhead in front of me as the banging stops.

"Who are you?" he asked suspiciously, squinting up against the light of my lumos.

"I'm Harry's friend. Harry couldn't come because he's in bed with a fever. He's been with me since Christmas," I tell Ron as I slowly float down and land next to him, dismounting my broom.

"Oh yeah?" Ron said. "Prove it."

"You were knocked out in a game of chess on your way to get Nikolas Flames's stone," I say. Ron studies me for another moment before he sighed.

"I'm sorry. It's just been hard around here without Harry. The Slytherins keep taunting us, Hermione and I, and saying that he ran away," Ron said with a sigh, leaning against the metal door behind him. "How much do you know about us?"

"I feel like I know you already, since Harry talked about you two so much," I say as I look at the door. "Were you trying to open that?"

"Yeah," Ron grunted. "It was opened recently according to this spell Hermione taught me."

"Well you won't be able to get in. It'll only open for a parcel mouth, unlike the entrance, which will open for anyone who can imitate the way open sounds," I tell him as I run my hand over the snakes.

"How do you know?" Ron asked curiously, and looks a little guilty when I look at him with surprize. "After Harry left, Hermione managed to get me to study, and I was curious about wards and lock because of my brother Bill, who works as a curse breaker. I found it really interesting."

"I can tell," I say, rolling my eyes.

"Any ways right here and here," I tap two sets of runes on either side of the door," are one of the really uncommon wards. Anyone who can speak an animal language will always have different vocal cords, and while human vocal cords can imitate some sounds, they aren't the same as a parseltounge's, and these wards were set to only let people who have parseltounge vocal cords open the door."

"That's awesome," Ron murmured as his eyes traced the runes around the door. " What are the rest for?"

"They're basic wards for privacy, and tell the snakes that lock it how to pull back," I say, my eyes tracing them before I turn to Ron. "So, you ready?"

"For what?" Ron asked.

"To go in," I say, drawing my wand and putting my broom into my fanny pack.

"I thought you said only parselmouths could go in," Ron said, bewildered.

"I'm a parselmouth," I tell him.

"What?" he asked, drawing away.

"It's not like it's a bad ability you know," I tell him. "In the Americas, it's popular because of the Mayan's Quetzalcoatl. They also used it to ward off poisonous snakes."

Then I turn back to the door, pausing. "How's you get in here anyways?"

"Mione."

I think about that for a moment before I shrug and turn to the doors. _'Open.'_

The snakes slide in a fancy pattern, making me roll my eyes. Ron, though cautious of me now steps in next to me, his wand held up. The two of us advance down the long, dimly lit chamber in between the serpentine columns that were carved with snakes. At the last of the columns I have to tilt my head back to look up into the face of a giant granite statue dressed in wizards robes with hair and a beard that touch the floor. Ron cries out next to me and starts running toward the two crumpled forms.

"Hermione," he asks, shaking first her shoulder, than Ginny's. "Ginny? Wake up!"

"They won't wake up," a calm, cultured voice says, and my eyes flicker to the source as a tall, dark boy emerges from the shadows of the pillar closest to the two girls, his edges unsubstantial in a way that reminds me of ghosts.

"What?" Ron asks, tearing his gaze away from his sister.

"They won't wake up," the boy said, twirling what I recognized as Hermione's wand.

"Isn't it rude to not introduce yourself?" I ask from my position at the entrance.

"You're the ones who came to my home," the boy replied calmly.

"Quite," I say. "You see, the thing is that it's not your home. It's mine. I'm No'ah Reis."

"Quite the claim," the boy said, walking towards me. "I'm Tom Riddle."

"Pleasure," I say, dipping my head the slightest bit, keeping my eyes trained on him. "And by what right do you claim my home?"

Behind Riddle, Ron was gaping at me as Riddle hissed at me. _'I am a parseltounge. That should be enough.'_

_'I am the only true lord of the Ancient House of Slytherin,'_ I reply back calmly, drawing on the aristocrat mask Ada had pounded into me. _'And just so you know, it's impossible to lie in parseltounge. And other than that, I know another parselmouth who was most certainly not descended from Slytherin.'_

"What?" Riddle asked, his voice dark and furious, and I laugh at him.

"Try it some time!" I tell him, and he hisses incomprehensible words at me. Then he turns and raises his arms, walking towards the giant statue at the end of the room.

_'Speak to me, Slytherin, Greatest of the Hogwarts Four,'_ he hisses, and mouth of the far above statue opens. I break into a sprint the moment his back is turned, and crouch down next to Ron.

"Is this really your home?" Rom asked.

"I own it, but it's not my home," I tell him before I pick up Hermione. " Come on, Riddle is Summoning some creature, and I don't want them to get hurt."

Ron nodded and grabbed Ginny, a black book dropping out of her robes. I pause to grab it, my eyes narrowing at the feel of the magic with in it weeping. Then, between the two of us we manage to hide them behind the closest pillar.

Then, before he can protest, I stun Ron and set him down between the girls. When Riddle turns back around as a slithering sound echoed from the face-statue, I'm the only person standing.

'_So hungry,'_ the basilisk hisses. _'Kill.'_

_Well, there went my miniscule chance at getting it to go somewhere else_, I think, pulling on the sunglasses (How does no one think of that? It's indirect!) that Ada had forced into my hand with my family line trace. I run back to the pillar on the side of the room and start climbing. The the top, I crouch and wait.

"Scared Reis?" Riddle asked, just like Malfoy.

"You wish!" I call back, before freezing as the familiar melody from my dreams haunted the edges of my hearing, steadily growing louder. Below me, Riddle was looking down the empty chamber. The music quickly reached a high pitch that set my bones buzzing, and flames erupted at the top of the pillar across from me, and fading to reveal the orange-red-gold bird that was grasping something in it's talons.

. . .

"Fawkes," I breath.

. . .

The phoenix trills, diving off the pillar and flying over to me, circling a few times before he settled on my shoulder and rubbed his head on my cheek.

"That's a phoenix," said Riddle as he stared at it before his gaze dropped to the bundle n my lap. "Though what that is . . ."

Then Riddle laughed. "So what have you done to get Dumbledore's trust? Abuse some children?"

"As a mater of fact, I hate him," I reply calmly as I slide the burlap packaging off the long thing with in, dropping a sheathed sword and a sheathed, matched pair of daggers into my lap. I'd become quite disillusioned from Dumbledore after being burned. "I've almost died three times because of him, and probably more because I was too young to remember."

"Then why are you saving his lackeys?" Riddle asked, the curiosity in his voice reminding me of Hermione.

. . .

"Because."

. . .

"They're only here because of Bumbledore anyways," I say, strapping the weapons on, the green daggers on either side of my waist and the red sword on my back. "So when is your creature coming out?"

There's a slithering sound, and Riddle examines his nails unconcerned as he walks over to the pillar across from mine and leans on it, examining his nails. "Why? Want to die soon?"

I roll my eyes. "Riddle, stop, you sound like my immature rival. Aren't you supposed to be sophisticated and stuff?"

"Well it's not like I'm going to let you leave," Riddle replied, and the basilisk hits the floor. "Goodbye. _'Kill him'_."

The basilisk hisses and throws himself at the pillar I'm on as Fawkes takes flight, and I leap to the next pillar over.

_'Fun,'_ I hiss, because I know it will bother Riddle, and because this is my first time being able to test how I can really move now. I jump to the next pillar again, and turn to face the basilisk.

_Now I have to survive this._

* * *

><p><em>Welcome back! Hope you like it!<em>


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